Live they create a personal, largely improvised take on the Warp back catalogue and its pioneering sound of hi-tech jazz, the cinematic live acts of Nosaj Thing or Amon Tobin, and the Flying Lotus brand of esoteric instrumental hiphop which created more possibilities for live electronic music performances.

Andrew Claes is most famous for being the sax/ewi/percussionnist/composer of Brzzvll, Stuff and Chaos of the Haunted Spire ( see ORT010, ORT012 and ORT014) among others.

This release is a compilation of his first Ep, single, remixes and a new track.All the tracks have been remastered especially for this project.Be ready to party and dance!

the video for Unseen Mystery Speed:

and for Mindcoat:

The original artwork for the single Unseen Mystery Speed:

artwork by Natché

And for a very special new year's eve, a video for the new track Alcyone:

Written, produced and directed by Internal Sun, lyrics by Carsten Van Moorhem.
Vocals by Carsten Van Moorhem and Laura Huysmans.
Sculptures and lights by Kenisman. Audio mastering by Jerboa.
Filmed on location in Berchem and Mortsel, Belgium.
Additional footage from 'Discovering Line' (FAC 1963) and Nasa.

Thursday, December 17, 2015

The new 'Japanese' Series is based exclusively on Japanese musicians / non Japanese musicians living in Japan or any combination possible between Japanese musicians and the rest of the world. It will mainly be a digital series but it will be possible to purchase some of the musicians cds as well when already released in Japan.First release is from Tetsuroh Konishi (bio), one of the leading Japanese trumpet player/composer/improviser. He has composed music for dance performances in Canada, USA, Korea, as well as in Japan. These compositions won him very high critic reviews in the media. He has also performed and recorded in Germany, USA, England, Norway, Russia, Greece and more with numerous musicians. He has composed music for NHK TV and Radio program and HIROKO KOSHINO Tokyo Collection 2014.He has received awards from Tokyo wonder site, Tokyo Experimental Festival8 and the 2nd prize from Art and Science competition in Obunsha composers section. He has exhibited performance art piece in Fukushima Modern Art Biennale 2012 and ARTSCAPE 2015 (on invitation from Baltimore USA). Tetsuroh is also a board member of The Conference of Music and Dance Japan (since1962) and also a journalist for monthly magazines “The World of Music” and ”Brass Tribe”. His range goes from classical to Jazz to experimental music. He plays a lot for contemporary dance and theatre performances. Most of his music is improvised and Tetsuroh plays a lot with breath textures. Recently he is exploring a lot of ambient music, teaming for example with therapists to relax their patients. Sleep On The Sofa is his last album and typically one of his best ambient album!Recorded and mixed at 'Bird Sound Studio' Tokyo / Produced by Tetsuroh Konishi.

Friday, December 11, 2015

This new collaboration with Rat records (here) sees the return and third full album from this fantastic sextet (see ORT004 and ORT006) also called simply BOAT.

The musicians are still the same stars, only for new guitar and bass players.

This time, this new album was recorded live by Dieter Claes and Roel Snellebrand in May 2014.

Edited by Pierre Vervloesem and Teun Verbruggen ( with the help of Richard Comte).

Mixed in April 2015 by Joseph Branciforte in New York City.
Mastered in April 2015 by Nate Wood in New York City.

Produced by Teun Verbruggen.

'Good luck finding an appropriate genre label for Teun Verbruggen’s Bureau Of Atomic Tourism. While the sextet delves headfirst into abstract free improvisation that abandons all conventional takes on musical notions such as melody, harmony and rhythm at one point, you witness them raging like a well-oiled outfit with years of experience the next. The front section of Andrew d’Angelo (alto saxophone, bass clarinet) and Magnus Broo (trumpet) covers the entire stylistic range from muscular solos to extended techniques, and is often joined by guitarist Hilmar Jensson, who makes his instrument sing mysteriously, places poignant accents or rages with an equal eagerness.

Initially the unpredictable improv may sound like an abstract sound poem, but this switches quickly to first dazzling freak-outs in the New York avant-garde tradition or even throbbing fusion with a nod to Miles Davis’ electric era, before ultimately arriving at muscular jazzrock in the vein of The Lounge Lizards and Belgium’s X-Legged Sally, with ultra-tight themes, subtly introduced electronics and turbulent dynamics. And what to think of the unstoppable groove of the Flaten/Verbruggen rhythm section and the musical action painting of Jozef Dumoulin on Fender Rhodes? What could have either been a failed jump into the deep end or a haphazard performance with the handbrakes on, here leads to a powerful achievement, executed with discipline and the will to incorporate the outer edges of improvised music....'

Friday, December 4, 2015

The Pot-Pourri series presents for the first time all the never released music ever composed by Pierre (bio) Vervloesem.A long time desire on his personal agenda, it took a few months to Pierre to remember, locate and clean the various old K7, tapes and various mp3 he succeeded to find.It covers all the material he started to record when he was twenty years old up to now.The songs here are demos, live recordings, unreleased tracks, various ideas and proper fun times.We have to thank the various fans and friends who were keeping some of those treasures without Pierre knowing, particularly long time friends and occasional collaborators Jean-Pierre Jonckheere (see OPV07), Alain VDS (see OVD012) and Manu Ribot (see OPV004).Most of all the musicians who played at least once with Pierre can be heard on the tracks and it would be impossible to name all of them ( since Pierre doesn't know for sure who is doing what sometime), but they will probably recognize themselves, notably Richard Belgium (see OPV003) who's singing on a few songs.This digital box contains OVD013, OVD014 and OVD015 at a bargain price.Digital release on the 4th of December 2015.Track listing:CD1:1: 13-22.3 2ème jet 2: Chez Claude, pt. 1 3: 5 suicides 4: Arpège Beat 5: Bacon & Eggs (Demo) 6: Bass Speed 7: Back to Town 8: Carina bourre moi là 9: Chhhht! 10: Envoie le ballader 11: Five Senses 12: Chez Claude, pt. 2 13: Nullo Problemo (Live) 14: Give It a Punch 15: French Fries 16: Chez Claude, pt. 3 17: Low CD2:1: Le fleuve 2: Ladyfriend 3: Intestin d’oiseau4: Le grec (Live) 5: Bacon & Eggs 6: Lucky 7: Lusitania 8: Pil pam poum (Démo) 9: Ma vie avec les papillons 10: Me, My Sex and I 11: Chez Claude no. 4 12: Nothing Magical 13: French Fries (Live) 14: Composition pour synthétiseur 15: Holiday Out (Live) 16: Palmer CD3:1: Nullo Problemo (Demo) 2: Give It a Punch 3: Old Steel 4: Pot-pourri (Live) 5: Rest in Peace 6: That Night 7: Sparklet Nasal 8: Pim Pam Poum 9: Chez Claude no. 5 10: Speed 10 11: How Could I Be Such a Fool 12: V! 13: Velvet Razor 14: Tidbits 15: Acid Heat 16: Tigadoudou 17: Vreuwr

Friday, November 20, 2015

Kurtisz is the brainchild of Belgian musician Laurent Stelleman (Monsoon, Lunascape) and Detroit native singer-songwriter Markest Tate (Speaking T). Formed in September 2014, Kurtisz fuses soul, electo, R&B and rock. Imagine Marvin Gaye, Radiohead, Otis Redding and Massive Attack having a jam session... Blue Bolts is their first single, mixed and mastered by Pierre Vervloesem. An album is being recorded at the moment and will be ready for spring.Kurtisz will soon be coming to a venue near you, so watch this space

Thursday, September 24, 2015

The majestic and threatening ambiguity of the forces of nature... set
to dark romantic space/doom/jazz music.
On this album, we empathize with a soul (symbolized by a trumpet)
exposed to his own and surrounding nature, reflecting circumstances
(ethereal vortexes of electronic soundscapes), accompanied by a
stoical instance (a piano).
There we have the trumpet - scared and forlorn, sometimes troubled and
rebelling, then again relieved and soaring... gliding through a
surging wall of sound, constituting grave monumental aural landscapes
with also a fierce, threatening quality at times.

The circumstances reflected by the trumpet are states of supreme lucidity.
In reality, desire for truth and certainty collides with the complex
and transitional nature of things and the freedom of interpretation.
Assuming that all questions are resolved, all answers are given and
all doubt is eliminated:
Man sees himself struggling and coming to terms with the given
incontrovertible conditions - resulting in painful knowledge and
relief all at once.

Music about ultimateness... with a sense of cinematic grandeur,
elegiac sadness, and high drama.

"Morgen Wurde" is Wolfgang Röttger's mission in creating haunting
musical ambiances.
For this album, he joined forces with like-minded trumpeters with
individual qualities and visions in free jazz and captivating
lyricism:

Tetsuroh Konishi from Saitama, Japan, developed a strong reputation
for his music composition and performance in Japan and beyond,
collaborating in the art scene across multiple genres including
writing, production, and education.
Australian born trumpeter Toby Mak was mentored throughout his
highschool years by Motown legend Gil Askey, today he is an in-demand
sideman and jazz soloist, currently living in Shanghai.
Frank Wilke is a classically trained tenor saxophonist who expanded
his skills to the trumpet and other wind instruments, bustling in
diverse ensembles in the German Ruhr district and worldwide
collaborations.
All of the three also being active in electronic music, they are a
perfect match for this project.

The material is augmented by interpretations from a number of unique
prolific producers:
Cogi from Manchester masters spaced out funky sampledelica.
Nightkites from Brighton deepens the cinematic qualities of today's
future garage grooves.
Firnwald breeds wondrous flows of electronic freestyle in the heights
of the German Allgäu.
Jan Nemeček from Belgrade is one of Serbia's finest electronic
musicians, here he delivers a truly epic psychedelic trip.
encym is a London-based sound alchemist, creating bizarre beauty out
of obscure or weirdly transformed sonic material.

Wednesday, September 16, 2015

For this impromptu session under the leadership of flutist Roland Binet, Guy Segers(Univers Zero, Uneven Eleven…), his friend and former co-musician at the beginning of the seventies, chose two other musicians whose talent, musicality and adaptation capacity were on a par with the challenge of a totally new and largely improvised music that did not correspond to any known musical concepts (rock, jazz, contemporary, fusion).

Roland Binet’s music, although founded on a multitude of world influences (jazz, classical and contemporary music, Asian scales, atonal and modal music, etc.) tends to free itself from the usual rock and jazz rhythmic and harmonic constraints in order to create a music based on musical ‘moods’, but with a stylistic continuity that centers around the intense way the flute (and saxophone) are played. His warm sound and vibrato on the flute owes much to jazzman Eric Dolphy and classical flautist Jean-Pierre Rampal. Although he has taken up the tenor saxophone which he plays in a rather free style, his proficiency on that instrument is not on a par with his nearly professional level on the flute.

Apart from some totally improvised numbers (‘D Rag’ or ‘Kermesse de Village’ for example), each tune had an overall concept with fixed or free harmony, but, basically, 90 % of what you will hear in this recording was improvised on the spot, and, generally – due to the high level of musicality of the members of this impromptu quartet -, one single take was sufficient. Three compositions by Roland Binet are played solo on the flute with a computerized arrangement, while one single title (‘Naima’) is a flute solo tribute to that great jazzman John Coltrane. Musicians:Roland Binet:flute, tenor saxophone, compositions, head arrangements.

In the past:

He has been playing the flute as his main instrument since 1967; he participated in the recording of a single with a rock/variety group at the end of the sixties. Played less than a year with two future members of Univers Zéro at the beginning of the seventies (Guy Segers and Roger Trigaux) in a quartet called ‘Cubical Sock’. Played a flute solo of 50 minutes of totally improvised music in 1977 at the ‘24 Hours of Communication at the Palais des Beaux-Arts of Brussels’. He played with the WIM Big Band of Fred van Hove in 1978, and played a flute solo live on the radio in February 1979 during Marc Moulin’s RTBF radio program ‘Bien Dégagé sur les Oreilles’. After that, during a long period, he concentrated on developing his own musical ideas and composing.

Recent activity:

In 2014, he has recorded and issued a CD of his own solo flute compositions (7 in total) in honor of the Jewish victims of the Holocaust in the Baltic States entitled ‘A Jewish Tragedy; a few hundred copies of which were offered free to the Museum of the Holocaust in Riga/Latvia to give as a present to the interested visitors. This CD is available on the principal music websites outlets.Andy Kirk:keyboard, guitar, head arrangements (discography):

Singer, composer, he plays the keyboard, the guitar, writes arrangements.

London-born, he has been living in Belgium (Charleroi Region) since a few years.

In the Past:

From Mexico to the Czech Republic, from the Scandinavian countries to Italy, Andy Kirk has performed on different international scenes with a variety of groups. Among these, his main and largest past collaboration has been with the cult group Univers Zero (records and concerts). He has also played with and composed for Albert Delchambre

Recent activity:

- Andy Kirk sings Peter Gabriel

Andy Kirk has sung Peter Gabriel’s songs in public since a number of years.

These form an integral part of his own programs and have been at the source of his own compositions in his solo and group concerts all during his musical journey (cf.: "Andy Kirk & The HEATMAKERS", "FAITH", "KHAZMA") with William DUNKER on the bass.

- Emergent Sea

A "Rock" multifaceted project, this group plays French ‘Chansons’ as well as free music and refers to other musical styles as well. The repertoire consists of own compositions and rearranged (mainly rock) oldies.Guy Segers: bass guitar, head arrangements

- Has begun a systematic review and computerized arrangement of all his past compositions since the end of the seventies, which amount to several dozens.Dirk Wachtelaer: drums, head arrangements (discography):

Born in the Salento area, he was surrounded by music from his earlier age thanks to his grand-father who was an instruments maker and who played guitar and mandoline, delivering serenades on demand in exchange for cheese, wine and olive oil.During his childhood he listened to all sorts of music, messing with the records collection of his brothers when one day he finally discovered Jazz.While listening to an album by The Jazz Renegades, he was fascinated by a double bass solo and decided on the spot that one day he would be a contrebasse player and do solo too!He started with an electric bass, playing blues with his brothers, before joining the academy and learning the double bass, always obsessed by that solo from years ago.Moving a lot between France and Italy for more learning and a lot of playing until 2009, he now divides his time between Brussels and Italy where he composes and gives concerts.

Tutti is his third album and the first one on which he plays solo.

Loving both jazz music and classical one, he naturally turns his music into a fabulous marriage of traditional jazz playing and avant-garde tunes.

Except for two covers and one traditional song, this album is completely composed by Marco.

The double bass is the only instrument used and played without almost any effects and overdubs. Enjoy!

a quick teaser of one of the songs played live with a little surprise at the end:

Impro 1 video:

Cantatina video:

Preghiera video:

pics by Gianni Cataldi

Physical and digital release on the 1st of December 2015.The digital cover is slightly different:

About Off

Off is a Belgian based label founded by Alain Lefebvre in 2007.
If you want to download, click on any Bandcamp buttons in the 'Listen and download' page. For the rest, just click on the name of the provider you want to buy from in each Believe player under the album you want to download.
If you want the real thing, you will find a BUY button linked to Paypal at the end of each cd presentation. You can also go on the Catalogue page and click on the cd you want to discover. You will find again the BUY button at the bottom of the page. Or go on the Shop page then just go to paypal.com and order at:
order@stilll.org , just leave a comment with which cds you want.